Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Some years ago [recently deceased professional boxer] Terry McGovern had an idea that he was a first class baseball player. He did perform with several semi-professional clubs, and got to putting in his mornings working out with the Superbas at old Washington Park. One morning Charley Ebbets found Terry coming out of the clubhouse, and Charley evidently did not like the idea of having strangers about the sacred diggings.

We each drafted a sort of mini-team—eight position players, one utility player and three pitchers. This is not unlike the makeup of some actual Negro Leagues team rosters. Teams had to be lean, players had to play every day (often two or three times every day), they had to play multiple positions and so on.

The only rule for our draft was that we were taking players based entirely on their performance in the Negro Leagues. That is to say we weren’t interested in taking Henry Aaron or Willie ...

Monday, February 26, 2018

MLB has no issues regarding Martinez’s age or identity. The league did not determine that Martinez traveled anywhere illegally or falsified his residency in Haiti. On Feb. 20, MLB cleared Martinez to sign beginning on March 6. However, MLB determined that Martinez had spent more time in the U.S. and Canada than the information he had submitted on forms to the commissioner’s office, which prompted the $100,000 fine.

“Irish” Meusel, the young outfielder once with the Griffmen and now on the reserve list of the Philadelphia Nationals, is due to receive his third contract in a day or so. He’s in the contract-receiving business.

The first contract he got from Colonel Baker angered him because of the low salary mentioned and he threw it away. Back again went another contract, calling for the same old figured. Meusel tore that up and mailed the pieces to the classical leader ...

This is a special time for baseball fans. Major league baseball is ready to begin another season, with spring training officially opening this week. With some exceptions, fans in most cities can at least dream of watching their team play in the postseason and maybe even compete for the World Series championship. For them, hope springs eternal.

Ditto for the Democratic Party. 2018 appears to be a “wave year,” with an opportunity to win control of the House of Representatives, maybe even the ...

J-Money made a really good point in that he couldn’t believe how fast the game was. He just couldn’t believe the reactions, the decision-making. And I think he also valued watching the guys coming off the mound like if a guy struggled or didn’t make a play. That’s a perspective they’re going to value maybe a little bit more.”

Saturday, February 24, 2018

The strength of the players, especially in their hands, wrists and forearms, goes largely unappreciated: I’ve never met a position player who wasn’t really strong in those areas, even dinky, little middle infielders. Indeed, after Michael Jordan’s one year in baseball in 1994, one of his many observations about the game was that virtually every player on his Double-A team was stronger than him from the tips of their fingers to their elbow.

The first step is to rummage through and get some quick thoughts. The Dodgers and Astros being at 96.5 seems high, just because it’s hard for any team to count on 97 wins. On the other hand, both teams are loaded and deep, and if something breaks, they’ll trade prospects for glue. The Marlins seem like a lock to lose 100 games, except it’s really, really hard for teams to lose 100 games. Baseball doesn’t like extremes.

But a lot could happen between now and Opening Day. It’s possible Tomas could put together a huge spring training performance and compel the Diamondbacks to keep him on the roster, hoping he could provide right-handed power off the bench, something they could use. Or an injury or two could open the door.

But if the Diamondbacks get to the end of camp, decide they don’t want Tomas on the roster and need a 40-man spot, he might wind up being designated for assignment.

Friday, February 23, 2018

Just for fun, a map that treats baseball in North America as a pattern of watersheds. Before clicking, can you guess which MLB franchise has the greatest number of people living closer to its park than to any other ML park?

Among other factoids, I see that El Paso is closer to Phoenix than it is to either Dallas or Houston. I’m not sure if there are a lot of D’Backs fans in El Paso, but if you want to drive to a game from there, Arizona is your best bet.

Charles H. Weeghman, President of the Chicago Cubs, last night served notice on players regarded as “holdouts” that unless they come to terms before the departure of the club for the spring training camps, early next month, they would be obliged to seek other employment.
...
[Weeghman:] “The club cannot afford to pay enormous salaries and the players should be made to understand the situation confronting the owners.

SABR is pleased to announce the 2018 recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award, established to honor the game’s great researchers—historians, statisticians, annalists, and archivists—for their invaluable contributions to making baseball the game that links America’s present with its past.
The 2018 recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award are: Jefferson Burdick, Bob McConnell, Tom Shieber, Andrew Zimbalist.

Anyway, Boras sees analytics as a management excuse to keep salaries down. He says Hosmer brought that same kind of “prestige,” meaning championships, leadership and intangibles. In his way of figuring, Arrieta beats Darvish badly in what Boras calls “prestige” value.

Arrieta has Cy Young votes three of the last four years (Darvish hasn’t had Cy Young votes since 2013), and he won one Cy Young, in 2015. He beats good teams, and ...

The end of the spit-ball spit-ball [sic] is coming. John K. Tener, president of the National League, has issued a warning to young pitchers, advising them not to cultivate the use of the spitball, and indicating that it was only the matter of a short time when it would be abolished.
...
[Tener:] “The spit-ball is a disgusting, unsanitary delivery not likely to endure more than a few more seasons at the most. All the members of the National ...

According to Rich Eisen, one MLB exec recently told him that there is a rule being discussed by some in the game that would basically cause a riot. It goes like this: In the 9th inning only, the manager of the trailing team would be allowed to send up any three players he wants for the first three at-bats of the inning. It doesn’t matter where a team is in the batting order during the game. The skipper can send up anyone he wants in any order for the first three at-bats in the 9th.

Dickerson and Odorizzi aren’t very good. Particularly with Odorizzi, the Rays have capable replacements. Why pay extra money for no gain?

We still don’t know the two PTBNL the Rays are getting in the Souza deal. If Keith Law’s report about the guys not being insignificant prospects is accurate, Bloom’s assertion that it was a baseball talent deal makes the handwringing about the deal misguided.

“We have enough storage on our computers, we can put as much on there as we want,” he said. “When you are working on those drills, you need that side angle, especially for pitchers. That open angle is huge.’’